Hey everyone! This is an entry for the Taiora Olympics, if you want to know a little more about that check out my profile or TaioraWarrior's, all the details are there. One last thing, this is my first shot at a oneshot, so hopefully you enjoy it!
Disclaimer: I don't own digimon
Best Friends First
Eight year old Tai Kamiya ran through unfamiliar park, soccer ball tucked under his arm, goggles worn proudly on his head. It had been several weeks since Tai's night time adventure and his encounter with the creature that called itself Koromon and he had just moved to a completely new district.
His parents had told the young boy that there had been some sort of terrorist attack, or something like that, in their old home district, Highton View Terrace, and that they had to move because of it. Tai wasn't sure at first if he would like Odaiba, the artificial island where they had moved, but he was starting to warm up to it.
Yesterday he had encountered some other kids around his own age who all played soccer. They had played for a large part of the afternoon, and Tai had finally felt that things were starting to become right again.
When they had first moved, several weeks before, Tai hadn't known what to do with himself. He hadn't known anyone, or where anything was in this new and unfamiliar place. Luckily that had only lasted for a few days. First he found out that his best friend in the entire world had moved in a few apartment buildings over, so he had someone to hang out with. Then he had discovered Shiokaze park, and an excellent place to play soccer.
He and Sora Takenouchi, his best friend, had spent most of their free time the rest of the week playing soccer at that park. The only thing that Tai had been missing had been other kids to play with the two of them. He loved playing soccer with Sora, after all she was nearly as good as he was so it was fun, but missed playing a larger game, and showing up more than just one person.
Then yesterday the last of his problems had seemed to be solved. Sora had to stay at her apartment that day to help her mother with something, so Tai had been resigned to a boring day by himself at home. On a whim he'd convinced his mother to let him go out to the park on his own, and while just walking around had come upon a group of kids around his age, who were all playing soccer!
They had been really friendly, and Tai had struck up a quick friendship with the group of boys. They had agreed to meet again today to play some more soccer, and Sora was going to get to join in with them this time!
Tai was happy that everything seemed to be returning to normal. He could already imagine himself and Sora dominating the field with their new friends, and just having a good time. In fact, Tai was so busy imagining this that he almost walked right into one of his new friends.
The boy just laughed at the expression on Tai's face as he narrowly avoided running into him.
"Watch where you're going much Tai?" The boy, Riku, asked with a laugh.
"Sorry." Tai replied sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head, "just a little preoccupied, is everyone here?"
"Well, everyone but your friend." Riku replied. "And your friend better be as good as you said!" He added with a grin.
"Yea, she's almost as good as me!" Tai replied with a laugh. Riku seemed about to say something to this when a loud voice started talking behind him.
"What do you mean almost as good as you Tai?" Sora asked, walking up next to her big haired best friend. Sora was wearing her newest hat, a blue one to replace the one Tai had thrown up in on her birthday a month or so ago, and her usual soccer gear.
"Exactly what I said." Tai replied with a grin. He and Sora always had an argument about who was the better soccer player; in fact it would have been a weird day if they didn't have that argument.
"Well, why don't you prove it!" Sora replied, grinning right back at him. She had been very sad to miss a day out playing soccer with her best friend the day before. It was one of the few things that she actually liked to do in this new district, especially if it was with Tai.
"Well let's go!" Tai replied, pointing over dramatically towards the field.
"Um excuse me." A voice cut into Tai and Sora's little bubble. Riku was glaring at Sora very disapprovingly. "But we don't want any girls playing with us."
"Huh?" Tai looked at Riku confused. Tai wasn't exactly the brightest person in the world and would sometimes forget that eight year old Sora was actually a girl, not a boy.
"Your, uh, friend here, she can't play." Riku said, pointing at Sora like she was some disgusting thing.
"What?" Tai asked, still not really comprehending what Riku was telling him. None of the kids in Highton View Terrace had ever cared if the person they were playing with was of the opposite sex, just as long as they were fun it was all good. Sora was just remaining quiet during this exchange.
"She can't play!" Riku shouted now, and Tai started to get angry. This random kid was dissing his best friend and holding him up from playing soccer.
"She has a name…" Tai started, angrily taking a step forward, but he felt a hand on his arm.
"Don't Tai." Sora said, and Tai turned back to look at Sora. He could see that Sora was starting to cry a little bit and that did nothing but make him angrier. "I'll just go." With that she turned and ran off.
Tai reached a hand out after her, but she was too fast for his grab. He heard a laugh from behind him and turned back to Riku.
"See? That's why we don't let girls play…"WHAM Riku started but Tai turned and hit him right in the face before he could finish. Tai had never, ever hit anyone before, but Riku had just hurt his best friend's feelings, and made fun of her. All the things in movies said that's when you're supposed to hit the bad guy, so Tai did, and boy did it feel good.
Tai just turned and left after that, leaving Riku on the ground, already sporting a pretty good shiner on his left eye. Tai didn't really care, he just wanted to find Sora.
It took him about two minutes. The two hadn't had much time to explore yet, but one spot had already started to become a usual spot for the two. It was a decent sized hill off to one side of the park. It was out of the way, but offered a very good view of the entire park, and the sky.
Sora was sitting at the top of the hill, holding her knees as she looked out at the park. She was so wrapped up in thoughts she didn't even notice Tai walking up behind her.
"Hey." Tai said, sitting down in the grass next to her.
"Tai!" She exclaimed, jumping a little bit as I surprised her. "What are you doing here?"
"Following you, duh!" Tai replied with a lopsided grin.
"But, what about the other boys?" She asked, and Tai could still see the couple of tears in her eyes.
"Those guys? There no fun." Tai said, leaning back on the grass. "You're way more fun than they were, anyways, you're my best friend, and best friends always come first. Anyways, there's no way I'd hang out with people who said mean things like that about you!"
Tai wasn't really sure where those thoughts had come from, but they were certainly true. Sora just looked at him, and then smiled. She sat up and hugged him, something that she had never done before, and Tai wasn't expecting.
"Thanks Tai!" She said, smiling and letting go of him after a few seconds. Tai just smiled back. The two sat there in silence for a few seconds, and then Tai broke the silence.
"So does this mean you forgive me for the whole throw up in the hat thing?" Tai asked innocently. Sora looked at him, then glared.
"NO WAY!" She said, giving him a shove.
"Even if I agree to let you win a game of soccer?" Tai asked, grinning once more.
"I don't need you to let me win a game of soccer, I can do that on my own!" Sora yelled back at him, things returning to normal for the two of them.
"Oh yea? Prove it!" Tai said with a grin, jumping up with his soccer ball, and running down the hill. Sora watched for a second, then jumped up and chased after him.
What followed was something that the people of Odaiba would see for many years, two best friends enjoying life, always together.
